About us
We write walks for the moment your phone stops helping
NaviTraveler LLC is a small travel publisher based in Mackinaw City, Michigan. We make one thing: self-guided city walks that keep working when the signal, the data plan or the battery does not.
Mission
Make a city walkable in one afternoon
The idea came from an ordinary bad afternoon. A traveller lands in an unfamiliar city, buys no local sim, walks out of the station, and loses the map halfway through the old town where the streets curve and the signal drops. The city is right there and completely illegible.
Guided tours solve this, but they cost money, run on a schedule and move at somebody else's pace. Map apps solve it too, until the connection, the battery or the accuracy fails. We wanted a third option that costs nothing, starts whenever you want, and cannot break.
So we write routes as a sequence of landmarks with plain directions between them, then format them as cards you can save to your phone gallery. That is the entire product. No app, no login, no live tracking, nothing to go wrong in a stone alley.
What we value
Four rules we apply to every route
These are the arguments we have with ourselves while editing, settled in advance.
Useful before impressive
A route is good when a tired traveller can follow it without thinking. That standard beats clever writing every time, so our sentences stay short and our directions stay literal.
Honest about limits
Streets close, cafes shut, viewpoints get fenced off. We say when something is likely to change, and we would rather leave a detail out than invent one.
Written, not generated in bulk
Every walk is written stop by stop and read back as if we were walking it. Routes get edited when travellers tell us something on the ground has changed.
No gatekeeping
The walks are free to read, there is no account, and you can screenshot everything. If a route helps someone see a city they could not otherwise afford to tour, that is the point.
How a walk is made
From a city to a set of cards
- 01
Choose the spine
Every walk starts with a chain of landmarks a stranger can find: a station, a cathedral, a market hall, a hill. If the chain only works with a live map, the route is rewritten.
- 02
Write the joins
The hard part is the walking between stops. We describe slopes, corners, crossings and the shape of the street, because that is what people actually navigate by.
- 03
Add the small honesty
One Navi Tip per stop: the queue at noon, the stairs on the left that are easier, the bench in the shade, the fact that the best view is from the side entrance.
- 04
Format for the phone
Finally the route is broken into phone-sized cards so it survives being screenshotted, sent to a friend, and read in bright sunlight with one hand.
The team
Small team, clear jobs
We would rather describe what each part of the work involves than publish titles.
Route writing
Walks are drafted by writers who have walked the city, then reviewed by a second reader who has not, to catch directions that only make sense if you already know the way.
City notes
Transport, safety, tipping and practical notes are kept deliberately general and updated when travellers flag a change. We do not publish prices or business names that go stale.
Traveller mail
Questions and corrections are answered by a person, usually within two working days. Corrections from readers are the single best source of route improvements.
Careers
Write walks with us
We work with local writers who know a city on foot and can give directions a stranger can follow. There is no permanent opening list. If you can send us one walk in your own city, written as stops and joins, we will read it and reply.
Write to careers@navitraveler.com with the city and your draft.
Partnerships
Hotels, hostels and tourism offices
Our routes are used by guests who arrive without a data plan, so front desks often print or link them. If you want permission to reproduce one for guests, get in touch and we will agree the terms in writing.
Write to partners@navitraveler.com.